West Africa’s al-Qaeda affiliate, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), on Saturday claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on military positions in Mali and said it had seized control of at least three of them.
Reuters could not independently verify the claim, which was distributed via JNIM’s official communication channels.
Earlier this month, JNIM also claimed responsibility for an attack on the airport and military airbase in Niger’s capital that the government said killed 11 members of the security forces, highlighting persistent insecurity in the Sahel region.
The attack in Niamey, which witnesses said began at around 6 a.m. local time and lasted for over two hours, was the second on the airport complex this year, after the region’s Islamic State affiliate, known as Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), targeted the site in January.
JNIM is also active in Burkina Faso and Mali, where it staged audacious nationwide attacks in April, hitting the airport in the capital Bamako, killing the defense minister, and seizing a string of army bases.
Niger, like its neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso, has struggled to contain attacks from jihadist groups that have killed thousands and displaced millions across the three countries.
It is increasingly bearing the brunt of a rivalry between JNIM and ISSP, which engaged in their first skirmishes in 2019 and have since clashed hundreds of times, resulting in more than 2,100 deaths, according to data from Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, a conflict monitoring group.
